9 hopefuls on ballot in District 15 race

Candidates are competing for 4 school board seats

With nine candidates vying to fill four open seats on the Community Consolidated School District 15 Board of Education, voters have a wide choice in the April 9 election.

But one thing the candidates seem to agree on is that money will continue to be one of the board's largest challenges.

"We'll have to see what the state will do," candidate Richard Bokor said. "They are behind on payments to school districts. As a board member, you have a limited amount of money to work with."

As one of three incumbents running, Bokor said his time on the board had been a learning experience. He was elected in 2009 and is running for a second term, although he does have some reservations.

"When you run, you have a lot of ideas, but you learn that you have to get things done as a group of seven and not individually," he said.

As for gaining a second term, Bokor said he would leave it in the voters' hands.

"You put your soul into being a board member, but my life will not change after April 9 either way," he said.

Another incumbent elected in 2009 and running again is Margaret "Peggy" Babcock. Like Bokor, Babcock said the reality of being on the board is a little different from what she had anticipated.

"What you expect and what the reality is takes time to learn," she said.

Babcock agreed that the biggest challenge will be money, or the lack of it, coming from Springfield.

"The biggest challenge is the burden the state will put on us," she said. "The governor's budget is expected in May, but you can't be proactive because proposals are all over the place. We'll have to wait, but we'll rise to the occasion."

Along with Babcock and Bokor, David Seiffert is running again. Seiffert was appointed in 2011 after board member Mark Bloom resigned. He said his experience had been "very good" and cited finances from the state as the largest challenge.

"It's getting more and more difficult for school boards to run their districts with the uncertainty from Springfield," Seiffert said.

New candidates include Ramnath Cidambi of Hoffman Estates, a technology professional who works for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, a state body dedicated to making college affordable for Illinois students. Like the incumbents, Cidambi said he sees state finances as the board's biggest hurdle. Cidambi, who has a 13-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter in the district, said he also thinks all board members should have to be parents of a child in the district and that security improvements at schools should be a priority.

One candidate is a former board member, Palatine family physician James Ekeberg, who served from 2007-11. Despite losing re-election in 2011, Ekeberg said he was running again because he believes he has something to offer. He said that since losing his seat, he had continued to attend most board meetings because he has a fondness for education issues. Ekeberg said the board's largest challenge is the need for short- and long-term planning.

"We also need a facility study," Ekeberg said.

A new face running this year is Abdul Javid of Palatine. Javid said his experience working with municipalities as a management professional for Motorola Solutions gives him a unique qualification to serve on the board.

"School boards are basically government entities that manage things, which I work with a lot," he said. "My expertise is risk management, and that's something that's needed here and now."

Javid, who has two elementary-age boys in the district, said he views transportation as the largest issue. The board is in negotiations with the District 15 Transportation Union on a collective bargaining agreement and seeking bids for outsourcing transportation for students, according to a board statement.

Finances, albeit finances to run a campaign, were cited as the reason the three remaining candidates chose to run on the same slate, according to Matt Lyons. He is running as a "Vote 1-2-3 for District 15" candidate with fellow Palatine residents Jennifer Zold and Donna Johnson.

"Our philosophies were similar enough, so we decided to pool our resources," Lyons said.

Lyons said the Vote 1-2-3 candidates disagree with some of the incumbents running and would like see a change. Specifically, Lyons cited dissatisfaction that Babcock, Bokor and Seiffert supported a $27 million bond referendum question that was defeated in 2010 and that Bokor and Babcock recently voted against studying whether outsourcing student transportation would be a good alternative.

Zold, a part-time private trust manager who campaigned to defeat the 2010 referendum question, said she was running to ensure the victory for those against the referendum was not rolled back.

"We took a month out of our lives to get 7,000 signatures against the referendum," she said. "To do all that work and see it undone in one election cycle would not be right. It can all be turned on its head."